DFW Airport, Emirates Airlines Deliver Biometric Boarding System for Travelers Headed to Dubai

“The development underscores the intensifying trend toward biometric passenger screening and processing in airports, with the technology recognized by border authorities and travel companies as a means of enhancing security and accommodating growing volumes of travelers. “

Texas’s Dallas Fort Worth International Airport has enabled biometric boarding for a daily flight to the Dubai International Airport.

The new system means that travelers on the daily EK222 DFW-DXB flight can enroll for biometric screening at the gate. A tablet will scan a registrant’s face and match it to their passport, and that encrypted data will also be sent to the CBP Traveler Verification Service for clearance. Once that clearance is obtained – a process that is nearly instant, DFW authorities say – the traveler can pass through the gate and board the plane. There is no need to present a boarding pass in this process.

The system is the product of a collaboration with Emirates Airlines, and also uses the veriScan proprietary software developed by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.

The development underscores the intensifying trend toward biometric passenger screening and processing in airports, with the technology recognized by border authorities and travel companies as a means of enhancing security and accommodating growing volumes of travelers. DFW is playing a pioneering role in this trend, with the airport having been designated an Innovation Task Force site by the Transportation Security Administration near the start of last year.

“As the Airport examines its current infrastructure and explores further expansion and Airport wide improvements, the implementation of biometrics and technology are at the forefront of all design discussions,” asserted a statement from DFW announcing the new biometric boarding system.